March 2023

3 Buckden Roundabout March 2023 Buckden Roundabout Team Editors - Articles & Events Ian Carter and Alec MacAndrew Email: editor@buckdenroundabout.info 33 Beaufort Drive, Buckden, PE19 5YU 07515 737636 Webmaster Alec MacAndrew Email: webmaster@buckdenroundabout.info Proofreading and editorial assistance Wendy Trattner Advertisements and Payments Fiona Shirley Email: adverts@buckdenroundabout.info Distribution Co - ordinators Wendy Thelwall, Lesley MacAndrew, Patricia Ford Contact this email for info: Email: distribution@buckdenroundabout.info Front Cover This month ’ s cover is a photo provided by Andrew Peckham and shows the footpath by Stirtloe Park with hoarfrost in the trees. Thank you to everyone who sent lovely winter photos. We only wish we could publish them all. We are looking for more photos and paintings of any kind that we could use as a front cover. We especially need photos and paintings of autumn and winter scenes and of events in the village. Please note that photos should ideally be in portrait format and should be a minimum of 2400 x 1700 pixels. More is better! All advertisements and non - advertising material are printed in good faith. Neither the Buckden Roundabout nor the Buckden Parish Council can accept any responsibility for the content of the advertisements, the services provided by the advertisers or any statements made in the advertisements or non - advertising material. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored with- out the express permission of the Editor of the Buckden Roundabout. THE DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF ALL MATERIAL FOR THE FEBRUARY EDITION IS NO LATER THAN 4.30 pm ON FRIDAY 10TH MARCH HOWEVER, SPACE IS ALLOCATED ON A FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED, BASIS. IT IS REGRETTED THAT ANY CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED AFTER THE DEADLINE WILL NOT BE INCLUDED. March Production Dates Production dates for the April Edition of the Roundabout are as follows: Copy deadline: Friday 10 March Proof Reading Saturday 17 March Copy to Printers Tuesday 21 March Distribution Thursday 30 March Contents Buckden Parish Council 4 From Your County & District Councillors 5 Church News 6 - 8 For your Diary 9 - 11 Village News 12, 14, 16 Buckden Bridges 13 School news 15 Library and Knot Garden 17 BJFC 18 Advertisements & Classifieds 19 - 24 March 2023 Spring is almost upon us and the snowdrops are starting to appear - although our cover photo this month does not reflect that! We seem to be coming out of that frosty period now and I for one am very grateful for that fact! Buckden has a lot of history. The Medieval church at St Mary ’ s; the 15th Century coaching inn now The Lion Hotel; the older dwellings that formed he heart of the village in years gone by; and obviously the towers themselves, famous for their association with Catherine of Aragon. All those historic buildings are both tricky and expensive to maintain! The Lion, a private business under new ownership, is responsible for their own maintenance, but the other his- toric buildings in the village rely on the generosity of donors to assist in the maintenance programme. St Mary ’ s is currently undergoing some work within the church - repairing the pointing towards the roof at the tower end of the church. The issue was only discovered as a result of falling masonry! Fortunately no - one was in the building at the time! Buckden Towers is fortunate to have an active group, the Friends of Buckden Towers, to support their ongoing mainte- nance activities. A project is about to commence for some essential repair works and you can read more about this on page 5. This month, we also have a fascinating article about repairs required to the bridges between Buckden and Offord over 200 years ago! Even then, the primary question seemed to be who was going to pay for the repairs! Please remember to visit the Roundabout website. As well as every edition from 2013 onwards available to see, there are often articles there that we could not fit into the print edition, as well as information that arrives during the month. The online edition of the magazine is in full colour: www.buckdenroundabout.info This month ’ s editor - Ian Carter Editor ’ s Page